Today I had that most wonderful thing in my inbox – a WEM (winning e-mail) informing me that I've won top prize in the HTC '25 steps to being a music legend' competition. And what did I win?
I'm hugely excited and very proud! A little bit of background information is required here: despite what the name suggests, this competition required ZERO musical talent. Which is lucky really, as musical talent is definitely something I'm lacking in. What it did require was time, effort and a passion for music and memories. And a willingness to make an arse of yourself.
To be honest, this was my dream competition, and I knew I was destined to win some sort of prize by the end of it! By uploading photos and videos, and sharing music links with friends, you could tick off challenges from the HTC list – each time you reached the next level you were in the draw for a better prize. As the game went on you could see what percentage of entrants made it to the ultimate stage – with all 25 steps completed after two weeks I felt pretty confident!
So what did I have to do? As well as making a Spotify mix tape for my friends, asking them for recommendations, listening to some classic albums from various genres, and watching music videos there were plenty of challenges for me to really get my teeth into.
These tasks gave me an excuse to dust off my old shoeboxes of memories - and oh how I love to do that!
A photo of a favourite gig ticket (now this was way more than just a gig - that night changed my life!):
And then for a bit of cheekiness – 'get a musician to personally respond to you on Twitter or Facebook' and take a screenshot. My first attempt was to get a Tweet from Steve Mason (my hero from the Beta Band) but he just retweeted me which didn't count - so here's me asking Nottingham boys Bent about their favourite movie instead...
A THOUSAND POUNDS TO SPEND ON MUSIC MEMORABILIA!
(...oh, and a HTC Sensation XL)
I'm hugely excited and very proud! A little bit of background information is required here: despite what the name suggests, this competition required ZERO musical talent. Which is lucky really, as musical talent is definitely something I'm lacking in. What it did require was time, effort and a passion for music and memories. And a willingness to make an arse of yourself.
To be honest, this was my dream competition, and I knew I was destined to win some sort of prize by the end of it! By uploading photos and videos, and sharing music links with friends, you could tick off challenges from the HTC list – each time you reached the next level you were in the draw for a better prize. As the game went on you could see what percentage of entrants made it to the ultimate stage – with all 25 steps completed after two weeks I felt pretty confident!
So what did I have to do? As well as making a Spotify mix tape for my friends, asking them for recommendations, listening to some classic albums from various genres, and watching music videos there were plenty of challenges for me to really get my teeth into.
These tasks gave me an excuse to dust off my old shoeboxes of memories - and oh how I love to do that!
A photo of a favourite gig ticket (now this was way more than just a gig - that night changed my life!):
A photo taken from the front row of a concert (here's Billie Joe from Green Day at Sheffield Leadmill in 1995 - sitting down because he'd broken his ankle!)
A photo of you with a musician (some of you may have read my story about touring with the Beastie Boys over at the Hilton Grammys competition - here I am rocking my pink hair with MCA!)
There were videos too - upload a video of a busker (I found a charming fellow outside Nottingham Broadmarsh - I'll have to go back and give him a few more quid now!). And a real classic - upload a video of you playing air guitar. Now THIS is embarrassing, but after several glasses of sherry it was a LOAD of fun! And it also reminded me what an amazing track 'Teenage Riot' by Sonic Youth is...
And my most favourite task? Recreate an album cover. This is something I'd wanted to do since I was 14 – recreate the infamous Kylie 'hair hat'! It looks so real you wouldn't know it was an Amazon box with tissue paper sellotaped on (err, well actually.....) (hope you like my Smash Hits-style captions!)
Oh year, and the best challenge by far was to watch the most amazing music video of all time - check it out here! *wink*
If I hadn't won anything in this competition I would have been surprised, but NO WAY would I have been disappointed. The two weeks I spent rummaging through old photo albums and listening to old vinyl was entertaining, nostalgic and reminded me how important music is to my life! Since then I've been playing Ryland the Telescopes, the Vaselines and the Sundays on the Technics turntable – he's not convinced, but it's better than listening to the 'In the Night Garden' theme tune. This was definitely the competition I've most enjoyed entering!
So now the question remains – what do I spend my £1000 on? The signed Bruce Springsteen guitar? The framed signed Smiths photo? The Kylie gold disc? Hmmm, well I reckon this signed Rick Astley photo is a good place to start...
